Healthwatch North Somerset

1
Healthwatch North Somerset

• A strong voice for local people to shape and
  challenge how health and social care services are
  provided in North Somerset

2
Health Social Care Act 2012

• Abolish Local Involvement Networks (LINks)
• Replaced by local Healthwatch April 2013
• New body - Healthwatch England in existence from
  1st October 2012

3
Healthwatch England

• Healthwatch England will provide leadership,
  support and advice to local Healthwatch
  organisations.
• Will gather and analyse information provided by
  local Healthwatch organisations and others to
  identify key issues and trends.

4
Healthwatch England

• Through the network, Healthwatch England will
  make sure the voices of people who use health and
  social care services are heard by the Secretary
  of State for Health, the Care Quality Commission
  (CQC), the NHS Commissioning Board, Monitor and
  every local authority in England

5
Strengthening the collective voice of patients
and the public
National Champion Voice
DoH- Secretary of State
NHS Commissioning Board
Healthwatch England
Care Quality Commission
Monitor
Ombudsman
Local authority
Local Champion Voice
Health and wellbeing board
Local Healthwatch
Overview and Scrutiny
Local public health
Community groups, Voluntary organisations
GP Consortia
Mental health
Older people
Working age individuals
Disability groups
BME groups
Carers
..Others
Providers
6
Local Healthwatch

• Represent the collective voice
• Scrutinise the quality of service provision
• Inform the commission decision making process
• Have a seat on the Health and Well Being Board
• Influence the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment
• Provide local evidence based information
• Help people access and make choices about care

7
What will we do?

• Provide information and advice to the public
  about accessing health and social care services
  and choice in relation to aspects of those
  services
• Make the views and experiences of people known to
  Healthwatch England helping it to carry out its
  role as national champion

8
What will we do?

• Make recommendations to Healthwatch England to
  advise the Care Quality Commission to carry out
  special reviews or investigations into areas of
  concern (or, if the circumstances justify it, go
  direct to the CQC with their recommendations, for
  example if urgent action were required by the
  CQC)
•  
• Promote and support the involvement of people in
  the monitoring, commissioning and provision of
  local care services

9
What will we do?

• Obtain the views of people about their needs for
  and experience of local care services and make
  those views known to those involved in the
  commissioning, provision and scrutiny of care
  services
•  
• Make reports and make recommendations about how
  those services could or should be improved

10
What will we do?

• Investigate specific issues of concern to the
  community
• Ask for information and get an answer in a
  specified amount of time
• Be able to carry out spot-checks to see if
  services are working well (Enter and View)
• Refer issues to the local Overview and Scrutiny
  Committee

11
How will it be different from North Somerset
LINk?

• Community Interest Company fully independent
  12 individual Directors
• We will seek to engage members through a sub
  structure looking at key issues
• Healthwatch North Somerset will contain a User
  Led Organisation (ULO)

12
Healthwatch North Somerset Mission

• To reach out to all sections of the community
  including disadvantaged and hard to reach people
• To promote self awareness and responsibility in
  managing personal health and wellbeing
• To provide opportunities to influence, question
  and challenge
• To build on and make use of existing expertise,
  support and networks

13
Patient and public involvement

• Earlier patient and public involvement
• co-production
• Helping identify what services needed
• Contributing to the design of services
• Feeding back on how services work
• Provide local evidence based information

14
Preparation prior to April 2013 launch

• Healthwatch North Somerset will be a membership
  organisation
• Invite current LINk members to join new
  Healthwatch North Somerset
• Recruit new Healthwatch North Somerset members
• Publicity drive using new Healthwatch branding
• Recruitment of staff
• Establish Healthwatch North Somerset work plan
  priorities

15
Contact

• Healthwatch North Somerset
• The Badger Centre, 3-6 Wadham Street
• Weston-super-Mare
• BS23 1JY
• Tel [phone]
• Email healthwatchns_at_gmail.com
• Georgie Bigg (Chair) georgie.bigg_at_talk21.com
• Telephone [phone]